January 30, 2012 1:06am ESTJanuary 25, 2012 12:12pm ESTKurt Warner's throw to Isaac Bruce in Super Bowl XXXIV gave The Greatest Show on Turf its crowning moment. And it made Bruce's childhood dreams a reality.

For the first three-plus quarters of Super Bowl XXXIV, the "Greatest Show on Turf" had been neither great nor much of a show. The Rams' offense had piled up a ton of yards but just one touchdown. A 16-0 lead had dwindled to nothing as the Tennessee Titans scraped their way back into the game.

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In the time between the Titans’ tying field goal and what became the Rams’ final drive, coach Dick Vermeil and offensive coordinator Mike Martz discussed what to do. Vermeil thought the coverage the Titans had been using was ripe for exploitation, and he wanted to attack the Titans defense with a pass down the field. Talking Martz into going deep is like talking a shark into eating a fish. He had the same idea.

“I was right down on the field. I looked up and I see these corners there lined up on my wide receivers,” Vermeil says. “They’re standing right out in front of me, and I’m saying to myself, if they stay like that, they can’t cover Isaac Bruce or Torry Holt without some help. These are the kind of things you talk about in between series.”

Martz chose a play called, “Twins Right Ace Right 999 H Balloon.” Twins right was the formation, ace right was the protection, and 'H' balloon was the route for running back Marshall Faulk. The 999 is the most important part. It meant all the receivers—three on the right, one on the left—were going deep. Bruce lined up the closest to the sideline among the three on the right, so he was likely to face single coverage ... if the Titans came out in the coverage that Vermeil hoped to take advantage of.

They did.

“We just guessed right,” Martz says.

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From the Rams' 27-yard line, with 2:12 left in the fourth quarter, center Mike Gruttadauria snapped the ball to Kurt Warner. “They only rushed four. Myself, Tom Nutten, the left guard, and Adam Timmerman, the right guard, had the two inside guys bottled up real nicely,” says Gruttadauria, who now calls games for Central Florida and owns a business selling NFL-licensed car magnets. “The pocket was set really well for Kurt. Orlando Pace on the left had the defensive end one-on-one really well.”

That left only defensive end Jevon Kearse, the Titans’ rookie, an incredibly skilled pass rusher. He bull-rushed through right tackle Fred Miller and into Warner’s face. Warner lofted the ball toward Bruce as Kearse knocked him over. “He just got that ball off on time,” Martz says. “Just a hair later, and the play never happens.”

Martz watched the ball from the press box and thought, “underthrown.”

Vermeil watched it from ground level and thought, “underthrown.” Bruce watched it as he ran and thought, “underthrown.” But Bruce knew something nobody else did: that Titans cornerback Denard Walker, the man covering him, not only didn't know the ball was underthrown, he didn’t know it was thrown at all. “It was pretty much just a race down the field. He wanted to cover me and make sure he was in position to make a play. The thing was, he wasn’t looking at the ball,” Bruce says.

During this race for the ball, Bruce knew he had to hide from Walker his intention to go after the ball because he didn’t want Walker to know there was a ball to go after. He didn’t change his eyes or his stride or lift his hands. He just kept running. Until the very last second. “We were running stride for stride. I used my inside arm to push him past me and come back and make a play on the ball,” he says.

That subtle contact allowed Bruce to get away from Walker, but there were other would-be tacklers in the area. Wide receiver Az-Zahir Hakim joined the play with a block that helped Bruce reach the end zone.

“I thought about how slow motion everything had become,” says Bruce, who retired after the 2009 season. “I thought about myself in my backyard in Fort Lauderdale as an 8-year-old, throwing myself touchdown passes, dreaming, envisioning myself catching game-winning touchdown passes from Dan Marino, because I was from South Florida.

“I thought about Marcus Allen and his recollections of his 73-yard touchdown, where he reversed field, how everything went in slow motion for him. The very same thing happened for me. I saw the faces in the crowd. I looked up at the Jumbotron during the play. I saw big Orlando Pace’s paw in the Jumbotron. He was celebrating.”

For all of the excitement of the moment, Bruce merely ran into the corner of the end zone, like he had done it before. In a way, he had. “I had played that play so many times on the inside of me,” he says.

After most touchdowns, Gruttadauria headed to the sideline. Not this time. “I thought that was the game. I was unaware there were still just under 2 minutes left in the game. I thought that was the game, I didn’t realize time was moving so slowly. I remember sprinting down the field with my hands up in the air in victory. At that point at least, I thought we were the Super Bowl champions.” Gruttadauria says.

He laughs when told about Bruce seeing Pace on the Jumbotron. “I was running fast. Orlando was one of the fastest linemen in the league at that time, but I guarantee you I had 20 yards on him.”

When Gruttadauria got to the end zone, he grabbed Bruce and whomever else he could get his mitts on. They were, he still thought, Super Bowl champions! Then he saw the clock. “Wait a minute. Does that say 1 minute and 50-something seconds left? Oh, no.”

On the sideline, Vermeil had a similar thought: “I said, ‘I hope it’s not too soon.’”

It wasn’t. But it was oh-so-close.

Tennessee had 1:54 to try to tie the score; this is a fact at which Martz chuckles. History seems to have gotten this fact wrong, that the game-ending tackle prevented a loss, when in fact all it prevented was a tie. “When they got down to about the 30, I started working on the next series and overtime,” he says.

Ultimately, that preparation was not needed. The Titans drove to the Rams 10, from which they ran one final play with 6 seconds left. Rams linebacker Mike Jones tackled Titans wide receiver Kevin Dyson at the 1, and time expired. The Rams held on to win, 23-16. For 2:12, the Greatest Show on Turf was exactly that.

Coming this week

Thursday: Super Bowl VI. Any time a play involves Meg, Wanda and Sarah, the Limbo and a sack for a Super Bowl record 29-yard loss, you know it’s important.

Friday: Super Bowl XXVIII. Give it to Emmitt Smith. Give it to him again. And again and again. By running the same smash-mouth play over and over, the Cowboys beat the Bills into submission.

Monday: Super Bowl XXIII. If the 10-yard touchdown pass from Joe Montana to John Taylor weren’t so beautiful, it would have been a disaster.